


Reasons Why

by badly_knitted



Category: FAKE (Manga)
Genre: 5 Things, Community: fan_flashworks, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Introspection, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, One-Sided Attraction, Partnership, Temporarily Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22102681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Dee gives some serious thought to why he’s fallen so hard for Ryo.
Relationships: Dee Laytner/Randy "Ryo" MacLean
Kudos: 2
Collections: fan_flashworks





	Reasons Why

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Challenge 267: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 5: Five Things. 
> 
> **Setting:** Around Vol. 4 or 5.

Dee sprawled on his bed, feeling defeated, and not for the first time since he’d foolishly gone and fallen for his partner. Of all the dumb things he’d ever done, this might well be the dumbest; lusting after Ryo was one thing, and perfectly natural in Dee’s opinion, but falling in love to the point where he had no desire to sleep with anyone else? Dumb. Why had he even fallen under Ryo’s spell? What was it about him that made him so special?

‘Maybe if I try to analyse it, like Mother used to get me to do whenever I said I didn’t like someone or something…’

Sitting up, he pulled a pad of paper and a pen from his nightstand drawer and flipped to a blank page. He tapped the pen against the paper for a moment, deep in thought, then started to write, in block capitals:

FIVE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT RYO MACLEAN.

He paused again, chewing the end of the pen like he used to when he was a kid and Mother set him this exercise, then hurriedly pulled the pen out of his mouth because it was making his mind drift to thoughts of sucking on other things when he should be focusing on the task at hand. Okay, start with the obvious.

1: He’s incredibly hot.

Dee knew what Ryo’s reaction would be to that if he ever saw this list, but it was the truth.

“So sue me,” he muttered to himself. “I’m a red-blooded bisexual guy; ‘course I think he’s hot! Beautiful face, gorgeous dark eyes, firm and leanly muscled body, long legs, slim hips, tight ass, and his hands…” Dee drifted off, practically drooling as he imagined Ryo’s elegant, long-fingered hands exploring his body… He dragged himself back to the present with difficulty. “There’s nothin’ wrong with bein’ attracted to a gorgeous man,” he reminded himself. “It’s a perfectly natural response to his hotness.”

Still, that couldn’t be the only reason he’d fallen head over heels, so what else?

2: He cares about everyone.

That was something Dee had noticed right from the start; who else would have taken an orphaned street kid into his home without hardly knowing anything about the boy? A couple of years later and Bikky was flourishing under his care. Dee was flourishing too, just from knowing his partner, working alongside him every day… Ryo was the one who’d taken care of Dee after Mother was badly injured, and he’d fussed over her when she’d been discharged from the hospital too. He hadn’t had to do that, he’d barely known her at the time, and yet he’d done all he could for her. He helped everyone in need that he came across, never thinking of himself, because that was the kind of person he was.

Dee wished he could be more like Ryo, but having grown up in an orphanage, he’d seen firsthand how some people took advantage of the kindness of others. It had made him wary and a lot less trusting than Ryo was. That didn’t mean Ryo was stupid, or naïve or anything, just a good judge of character, and more willing that Dee to give people the benefit of the doubt, which brought Dee to the third thing he loved about his partner.

3: He’s smart.

Damn straight he was! He’d done way better in school than Dee had, even though Dee had worked hard and done better than most people had expected him to. Ryo wasn’t a genius, he hadn’t been top of his year at graduation or anything like that, but he’d been in the top ten percent. Dee himself had come out of high school with well above average grades, but not as high as Ryo’s. 

It was more than that though, something that couldn’t be measured by school grades; Ryo had an analytical mind that kept working all the time, piecing together shreds of information and evidence on their cases, until something clicked. He saw things that Dee might otherwise have missed. Being around him made Dee a better detective, and yet he knew Ryo didn’t see himelf as being anything special, not as a person and not as a cop.

Dee grinned as he noted down the next point in Ryo’s favor.

4: He’s natural.

Everything about Ryo, what you saw was what you got; he didn’t act like he deserved special treatment, didn’t try to impress the people around him, he was simply himself. Dee couldn’t imagine Ryo showing off, or trying to get attention. He’d been with a lot of people who dyed their hair, or wore lifts in their shoes, or put on airs in one way or another, but he couldn’t imagine Ryo doing anything like that. Sure, he seemed to be confused about his sexuality, but that was different; coming out was a scary business, and a lot of people struggled with it, sometimes for years. In every other respect though, Ryo was his own man. He didn’t follow the crowd; he dressed the way he wanted to, he liked what he liked, not what everyone else liked, and he didn’t care if some people thought him dorky. Truth be told, he probably didn’t even notice. Anyway, being a dork wasn’t a bad thing; in fact it was kinda cute.

5: He makes me laugh.

Yeah, a lot of the time it was unintentional, Ryo was kind of an airhead, and could be a bit of a klutz when he was so deep in thought that he wasn’t paying enough attention to his surroundings, but he also had a quick wit and a sly sense of humor that tickled Dee’s funny bone just right. In their line of work, a good sense of humor was essential, otherwise you’d burn out, crack under the strain and either go off the rails, on the take, or turn to drugs or the bottle to escape. Dee had seen it happen to good cops before, way too many times, but Ryo, although he could be obsessive when working a case, was pretty well grounded, and more importantly, he could laugh at himself. 

Whenever Ryo was laughing Dee found it impossible not to join in, even when he didn’t have a clue what his partner was laughing at. Yeah, and even when Ryo was laughing at him, because it was never unkind, just genuine good humor; it could even be called affectionate.

There was a whole lot more to Ryo Maclean of course, he was a soothing, calming presence when Dee let his temper get the better of him, and a great cook, not to mention a crack shot. He knew how to do all kinds of things that Dee wouldn’t have expected, outdoors stuff like skiing and boating and horseback riding. He knew martial arts too, which had Dee crazy impressed, but the five points he’d listed told Dee all he needed to know; he’d be crazy NOT to have fallen for someone as amazing as Ryo Maclean.

Returning the pad and pen to the drawer, Dee flopped back on his bed again, feeling a little better about his situation. Falling in love with his so far unattainable partner might not have been the smartest thing he’d ever done, but because of Ryo’s many good qualities it was only natural, maybe even inevitable. All that was left was for Dee to figure out what he was going to do about it.

Smiling to himself, he reached over to turn off the lamp on his nightstand, plunging his bedroom into darkness. What he wasn’t going to do was mope over his situation, and he certainly wasn’t about to give up his pursuit. Ryo was worth fighting for so Dee would just have to keep trying and hope that eventually his partner might love him back. For once in his life, difficult though it would undoubtedly be, he was going to be patient, even if it killed him.

The End


End file.
